M4800 Owner's Thread

I’m not sure if I understand. I consider the specs to specify “equipment”.

When I bought a pre-config (which I had to), the machines with the same code would just be the same to the last detail of the specs, within the specs. (For instance, no-one would know which exact make of LCD one would get, though they’d be compatible.)

 

I have a Dell Precision m4800 i5 with this configuration.

Intel Core 4th Generation i5-4210M, 2.60 GHz
4GB DDR3L SDRAM, 4 slots
500GB SATA Hard drive
Optical (DVD-ROM)
15.6" (1366 x 768) Display
Intel HD Graphics 4600
NVIDIA Quadro K2100M 2GB
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN

I have two questions. The first is, can the m4800 i5 be upgraded to a 4th generation i7 CPU? I had a i7-4800MQ in mind. Will the the CPU socket on the motherboard take an i7 upgrade? and secondly can I upgrade the display panel from the 15.6" (1366 x 768) to an FHD Ultrasharp (1920 x 1080) resolution panel or even a 15.6 inch UltraSharp 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) display ? Your prompt replies will be appreciated.

 

You can upgrade to any i7 4000-series mobile CPU that fits. Upgrading from i5 to i7 is an option.
Upgrading to the 1080p display should be fine as well. Going any higher (to the high-DPI QHD+ or UHD/4K display) will require a motherboard replacement.

 

Thanks for your reply, this will definitely extend the life of my m4800. The upgrade should be easy since getting at the motherboard for the CPU upgrade isn't that hard and taking out the LG 1366 x 768 display is easy. There's videos on youtube that show you how to do it. Thanks again.

 

You will need a FHD LVDS cable too. The one with the 1366x768 display will not work. Otherwise, the upgrade is pretty straightforward.

 

Well, I am now a proud owner of my very own M4800. This is a brief review.

To my eye the looks easily trump the competition from Lenovo, Toshiba and HP. I am not a vain person but those look nowhere near as nice, and the W541 from Lenovo and Tecra W50 from Toshiba apparently suffer from overly flexible chassis, the HP being (even!) heavier than the Dell.

At first I was nervous about getting the 1080p display because it uses a TN panel but boy, this is not your average TN panel. It's about as beautiful as my actual IPS display on my desktop and I have no regrets about saving myself $500 by not getting the UHD display, not to mention the power savings.
The backlit keyboard looks really good and is definitely useful for me as I am often using it in low light environments. To my fingers it feels fine to type on, if slightly mushy. The pointing stick is a welcome unobtrusive black. I definitely appreciate the numpad as well.
The trackpad is very nice and responsive and though its buttons also feel somewhat clunky and its position in the middle of the keyboard is logical, but it does feel slightly wrong to have it off-centre from the display. I find myself tracking on the very right-hand edge of it a lot, which in Windows 8.1 will bring up the Charms until I figure out how to disable that.
Sound-wise it sounds nice. I can definitely tell that I'm listening through a laptop but it doesn't become a grindy clipped mess at max volume which, by the way, is loud.
Another welcome feature is the plethora of connectivity. Four USB 3 ports, and they are largely spaced out so you can fit big USB drives in right next to one another. Add to that both DisplayPort and HDMI and, for the Luddites, VGA, I've had no problems connecting to anything I want. ESATA also helps someone, somewhere. Whom I've never met.

Hardware performance will, of course, vary with the specification you got. I went for the best spec I could afford which meant i7-4910MQ and Quadro K2100M. I added the RAM and storage myself since the OEMs demand outlandish price premiums for these. So I have 32GB of Kingston HyperX RAM, a 500GB mSATA Samsung Evo 850 SSD and a 750GB WD Black HDD.

So, is it all worth it? For most people I would say no. The M4800 is very heavy and has a heavy power pack as well. As an average man I can carry it with relative ease, but for most women it would be a burden that would soon get old and make thinner, lighter options much more attractive. As heavy as it is it is also very expensive; I could only afford it because I imported a refurbished unit and did the final few upgrades myself. On top of all this its battery life is by any reasonable measure terrible. This makes it suitable for off-plug computing only for short bursts and light workloads. High power computing is simply not possible on battery. However, for those of us who require a powerful computer that is mobile enough to use in multiple locations, even if it must be plugged in at all of those locations, little else can match it. It's still much smaller and lighter than the M6X00 and only graphics cards make the M6X00 more powerful fundamentally. The versatility and expandability make this machine for me - it does everything I ask of it and more. What I love is that it's a laptop that doesn't feel like it's limited by that fact.

Which is not to say that there aren't things to improve on this laptop. On my wish list would be a lighter carbon fibre-based chassis, though the matte metallic surfaces are most welcome; 10Gb USB 3.1 with c-type connectors, thunderbolt 3, PCIe-based M.2 slots, and maybe a bigger touchpad like all the cool kids have. I would also really love a bigger graphics card slot so it could take the larger cards (and allow us to change to GeForce cards). That wishlist to me says that the M4800 does not commit any major sins - it could just be even more excellent than it already is. And with Xeons coming to laptops now, maybe the next one will be a Skylake Xeon with ECC DDR 4 memory and all the good stuff.

 

I picked up a used Dell Precision m4800 i7 on eBay for only $667.00 and it even still had a warranty (Next day service through Unysis to April 2017) Not bad. Here are the specs

Processor
Intel Core i7-4800QM® 4th Generation Hyperthreaded Quad Core
CPU -

MemoryMemory Installed - 8 GB

Hard Drive
Hard Drive Size - 500 GB
Hard Drive Type - SATA
Media/Optical Drive
Optical Drive Installed - DVD+/-RW
This drive will allow you to watch and burn standard DVDs, burn CDs, and play audio/data CDs.
Internet connectivity
1 Dell Wireless 7260AC
2 Gigabit Ethernet Adpator
Software
Operating System - Windows 10 Home® 64 bit (recovery partition included)
Connectivity Ports

(4) Internal USB, (1) Media Card reader, (1) HDMI port, (1) VGA Monitor Port
Screen/Graphics
15.6" Bright 1920x1080 Crystal Clear Widescreen LCD Screen
AMD® FirePro M5100 FireGLV™ Video Graphics


There are of course a few dings on it like a dent on the top cover but that can be easily replaced with a new one. This thing was shipped from Dell back in April 2014, that makes it only 17 months old. I would like to replace the regular keyboard with a lighted keyboard. Is that possible?

Here is a link to the item on eBay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-M4800-Laptop-Core-i7-4800MQ-Quad-2-7-GHz-15-6-DVDRW-500GB-Win-10-/361394045484?nma=true&si=KAaPKOo5z%2FCYUTNTvr6OlEwDyA8%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

I have a Dell Precision M4800 with 8 Gigabytes of memory in the secondary memory slots. 4 Gigs in slot C and 4 Gigs in slot D under the keyboard. My question is, do the primary memory slots A and B under the bottom access panel have to be used first before using the secondary memory slots? The computer seems to run slowly and I was thinking that the memory might be installed incorrectly so should I switch the memory from the secondary memory slots C and D to the primary memory slots A and B. Your Prompt replies will be appreciated.

 

Yes, you can get the backlit keyboard and replace it. it's a fairly straightforward operation you can find in the Owner's Manual.

Yes, the lower slots must be filled first. Dell also states explicitly that using different capacity DIMMs in the slots under the keyboard is not supported, so your results may vary. See this support document for more info.

 

How bad is the battery life?